7 Ways to Turn Your Dreams Into Reality
Wondering what to do after you’ve set your goals and made your vision board?
In my workshops, I tell people that making the vision board is just the beginning.
Once the last image is in place, the real magic - and work - begins. Now it’s time to bring that vision to life and turn your dreams into reality.
So far, you’ve identified and clarified your dreams and goals. You’ve paired them with visual representations that capture the essence of those goals. And you’ve performed a bit of a creative magic ritual by intentionally collaging the images together into a vision board.
But now what?
Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.
Some of that work might be mindset work, some of it might be lifestyle changes to accommodate the new reality you desire, and some of it likely includes some practical goal achievement strategies.
You see, I don’t believe that you can or should make a vision board and then just sit back and wait for your dreams to magically manifest. I think it’s cool when it sometimes happens, but that it’s not the norm. That we have to put action behind our desires and meet the universe halfway.
Besides, why leave your most important desires up to chance?
So here are ways to keep your momentum going and bring your dreams and goals to life.
7 Ways to Turn Your Dreams Into Reality
Step 1. Keep Your Dreams Visible
Once you’ve decided what you want, keep it where you can see it.
This is one of the reasons I love vision boards. They create a visual representation of your dreams and goals that you can return to again and again.
Your vision board:
Acts as a reminder
Programs the subconscious
Stimulates the imagination
Maintains motivation
Keeps you on track
Sends the vibration of your intention out into the universe
If you’ve made a vision board, display it somewhere you’ll see it regularly. Hang it on your wall, keep it near your desk, or use a digital version as wallpaper on your computer or phone. Or do all three as I do.
If you don’t have a vision board, you can make one or think of another way to keep your dreams visible and keep them from disappearing beneath the responsibilities and distractions of everyday life.
Step 2. Turn Your Dream Into Actionable Steps
Dreams can be big, exciting, and wonderfully expansive. But we need to find a way to wrap our mind around it and make it achievable.
Choose one important dream or goal from your vision board and break it into smaller, specific steps.
The more doable the next step, the better.
If you know what needs to happen to achieve your goal, create an action plan. Break the goal into milestones, projects, tasks, and next steps. Then revisit your plan regularly and revise it as you learn more.
Some goals lend themselves to this process more easily than others. There are fairly specific steps and milestones involved in getting accepted into medical school, buying a house, or running a marathon, for example.
But sometimes you genuinely don’t know how to make a dream happen.
That’s okay. You don’t need to know the entire path.
Ask yourself: What is one thing I can do to move in the direction of this dream?
Maybe it’s doing some research. Making a phone call. Signing up for a class. Saving your first $100. Talking to someone who has already done what you want to do.
Start there.
Step 3. Track Your Progress
Use a journal, habit tracker app, spreadsheet, calendar, or progress chart to record the actions you take, milestones you reach, and lessons you learn along the way.
It’s easy to focus on how far you still have to go and overlook how far you’ve already come.
Tracking your progress helps change that.
Seeing progress, no matter how small, can build momentum and motivation. It also gives you useful information about what is and isn’t working so you can adjust your approach as you go.
Step 4. Get Support
Don’t go it alone.
The right support system can provide encouragement, accountability, guidance, expertise, fresh perspectives, connections, and resources to help you go from where you are to where you want to be so much easier and faster.
Depending on your dream and what you need, your support team might include:
Friends and cheerleaders
Mentors
Coaches
Teachers
Therapists
Accountability partners
Professional experts
Groups or communities of people pursuing similar goals
Think about the dream you’re working toward now.
What kind of support would make it easier for you to achieve it?
And then consider how you can begin putting that support in place.
Step 5. Take Consistent Action
Dreams need doing.
Look for at least one small thing you can do today to move toward your goal.
Then do it.
Tomorrow, take another step.
Keep taking the next step, even when motivation dips, things don’t happen as quickly as you’d hoped, or you don’t know the whole path.
As Martin Luther King Jr. said,
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
Take the step you can see from where you are now.
The next one often becomes clearer once you do.
Step 6. Create an Environment That Supports Your Dream
We tend to think about achieving goals as something that happens through willpower and discipline. Or, if we’re in the law of attraction camp, through our thoughts and beliefs.
But your environment matters, too.
Take a look around you and consider how you could shape your everyday surroundings to make your desired actions easier, keep your dreams visible, and reinforce the person you’re becoming.
You might surround yourself with:
Art and décor that inspires you
Books, podcasts, or classes related to your goal
Affirmations and visual reminders
Equipment and tools appropriate for your goals
Clothes that make you feel like the person you’re becoming
Music that energizes or focuses you
People who encourage and inspire you
You can even curate the other environments that you spend time in.
Spend more time in environments that have good energy (nature, high-vibe coffee shops, the company of friends and family that lift you up) and less time in environments that bring you down (low-vibe shops, the company of those who gossip, criticize, or complain).
Think of your environment as another tool for turning your dreams into reality.
Step 7. Work on Your Mindset and Belief
Your thoughts and beliefs affect what you notice, what you believe is possible, how you respond to setbacks, and whether you continue taking action when things get difficult.
There is a reason so many experts and books on self development, business performance, and sports psychology focus on mindset and attitude. Everything starts with your brain.
As you work toward a dream, pay attention to the thoughts you’re operating from.
Are they helping you move forward?
Or are fear, self-doubt, limiting beliefs, or negative self talk pulling you back?
Here are a few simple practices to experiment with:
Practice positive self talk
Visualize yourself successfully taking action toward your goal
Look for evidence that you’re making progress and things are working out
Journal about your dreams and goals
Celebrate small wins along the way
You don’t have to feel super confident every minute or believe with complete certainty that everything will happen in the perfect way.
You just need enough belief to keep taking the next step.
Your Dream + Your Next Step
That’s it. Seven simple ways to help turn your dreams into reality.
Simple doesn’t always mean easy, of course.
Big dreams can ask a lot of us.
They may ask us to learn new things, change old habits or deeply-ingrained beliefs, face fears, ask for help, try something that doesn’t work, and keep trying.
They ask us to become a new version of ourselves along the way.
But if you have something you desire deeply and authentically, then it is worth all of it.
So choose one of these strategies to try today for your most important dream or goal.
You don’t have to do everything all at once.
What is one small thing you can do today to move your dream closer to reality?
Start there.
Want a reminder of these seven strategies that you can keep handy as you work toward your dreams?
I made you a handy printable!
And if you want to go deeper, I devoted an entire section of my book, Vision Board Magic, to setting yourself up for success, living into your dreams, and achieving your goals.
